1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner for cooling a room by supplying cold air in the room, and more particularly to such an indoor unit capable of cooling two room spaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a conventional indoor air conditioner unit. As shown in FIG. 1, the indoor air conditioner includes a panel member 2 for forming an external appearance of the indoor unit. The panel member 2 is provided with an intake port 4 for sucking a room air and a discharge port 6 for discharging a cold air. The indoor unit further includes a filter member 3 disposed inwardly of the intake port 4 and adapted to filter foreign substances contained in the air sucked through the intake port 4, an evaporator 8 adapted to change the air passing through the filter member 3 into a cold air, and a fan member 9 adapted to supply the cold air from the evaporator in the room by a rotation thereof.
To form the appearance of the indoor unit, the panel member 2 is coupled with a case member 10 in which a duct member 5 is mounted. Beneath the evaporator 8, a drain member 7 is disposed which serves to outwardly drain a condensed water generated in the evaporator 8.
When a main switch (not shown) is switched to its ON state, the fan member 9 rotates. By the rotation of the fan member 9, room air enters the interior of the indoor unit through the intake port 4 of the panel member 2 and then passes through the filter member 3 and evaporator 8.
The air is changed into a cold air while passing through the evaporator 8. The cold air is guided by the duct member 5 to be discharged out of the discharge port 6 and then supplied in the room. By the supplied cold air, the room is cooled.
In the indoor unit of the conventional air conditioner, however, the room air is sucked only in one direction and the cold air is discharged only in one direction, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1.
Due to such a construction, where two room spaces are to be cooled, two indoor units are needed. Such a use of two indoor units results in an increased burden to consumers in terms of economy and an increase in consumed electric power.
Furthermore, excessive noise and vibration generated from the rotating fan members of the two indoor units give users an unpleasant feeling.
For solving such problems, there has been proposed a bidirectional intake-discharge type air conditioner. For example, such a bidirectional intake-discharge type air conditioner is disclosed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 62-27771 filed on Nov. 20, 1982 and published on Jul. 16, 1987. As shown in FIG. 2, that air conditioner includes a body 100 provided at its front and rear walls with a plurality of discharge ports 102 and 102'. A pair of fans 103 and 103' are disposed at opposite portions in the interior of body 100. A heat exchange coil 104 is inclinedly arranged in the interior of body 100 along the diagonal line of the body 100. A partition plate 105 is also arranged in the interior body 100 such that it crosses the heat exchange coil 104 in the form of X-shape.
Although the conventional bidirectional intake-discharge air conditioner has an effect capable of cooling two room spaces by one indoor unit, it involves various problems such as an increase in consumed electric power, an excessive generation of noise and vibration and thereby a degradation in quality.